FREEDMEN'S BUREAU PRESERVATION ACT: ARE Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house 75-060 PDF U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 2001 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South BOB BARR, Georgia DAN MILLER, Florida ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas LEE TERRY, Nebraska JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois GREG WALDEN, Oregon DOUG OSE, California PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE, Idaho DAVID VITTER, Louisiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington, DC CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine HAROLD E. FORD, JR., Tennessee JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont (Independent) KEVIN BINGER, Staff Director DANIEL R. MOLL, Deputy Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION, AND TECHNOLOGY STEPHEN HORN, California, Chairman JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois JIM TURNER, Texas PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania MAJOR R. OWENS, New York PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana EX OFFICIO HENRY A. WAXMAN, California J. RUSSELL GEORGE, Staff Director and Chief Counsel Millender-McDonald, Hon. Juanita, a Representative in Congress from Swygert, H. Patrick, president, Howard University, accompanied by Dr. Thomas C. Battle, director, the Howard University Mooreland-Spingarn Research Center; and Dr. Elizabeth Clarke Lewis, director of the public history project, Howard University Washington, Reginald, African American Genealogy Subject Area Special- ist, National Archives and Records Administration; Michael Kurtz, As- sistant Archivist of the United States for Records Services, National Archives and Records Administration; Professor Tony Burroughs, ad- junct professor of genealogy, Chicago State University; and Henry Wiencek, resident fellow, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Burroughs, Professor Tony, adjunct professor of genealogy, Chicago State Kurtz, Michael, Assistant Archivist of the United States for Records Services, National Archives and Records Administration, prepared Swygert, H. Patrick, president, Howard University, prepared statement Turner, Hon. Jim, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas, Washington, Reginald, African American Genealogy Subject Area Special- ist, National Archives and Records Administration, prepared statement Wiencek, Henry, resident fellow, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, FREEDMEN'S BUREAU PRESERVATION ACT: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2000 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Stephen Horn (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Horn and Kanjorski. Also present: Representative Millender-McDonald. Staff present: J. Russell George, staff director and chief counsel; Earl Pierce, professional staff member; Bonnie Heald, director of communications; Elizabeth Seong, clerk; George Frazer, intern; Pearl-Alice Marsh, senior policy advisor for Representative Millender-McDonald; Trey Henderson, minority counsel; and Jean Gosa, minority clerk. Mr. HORN. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology will come to order. 135 years ago yesterday, 40-year-old former slave George Mason died in City Point, VA. His official death certificate is one simple line in a ledger book so tattered by age that a ribbon holds its fading pages together. If there are other records about Mr. Mason's life, they are likely buried somewhere in the millions of pages of deteriorating documents from the former Freedmen's Bureau. We are here today to examine H.R. 5157, the "Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation Act of 2000," introduced by Representatives Juanita Millender-McDonald of California and J.C. Watts of Oklahoma. This bill requires the Archivist of the United States to use all available technology to preserve and catalog the records of the Freedmen's Bureau. On March 3, 1865, the 38th Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau. This bureau was given the authority to supervise and manage activities relating to the newly emancipated African Americans. Following the bureau's closure on June 30, 1872, the records from its regional offices were sent to the National Archives for storage where, to this day, these vital links to history languish in their original state, due to lack of attention and funding. |